First, browse on Primary Authors, select the author you are looking for, and make yourself familiar with basic information on the author by reading the chronology. To make yourself more familiar with your author, read the books and articles listed in Essential Readings, and when you feel confident or satisfied, start searching the database on the topic you have chosen. It is assumed that you have already read the assigned texts on the author. Form some keywords for your search and use them to perform a Keyword search on the database.

Let's say your topic is on the demands of weekly serialisation evident in Elizabeth Gaskell's North and South as serialized in Household Words. You are expected to consider how Gaskell had to adapt her writing to the requirements of weekly serial installments, whether reviews of weekly parts of the novel in contemporary periodicals had any effect on Gaskell, and how "cutting up" the novel into "portions of an arbitrary length," as Harriet Martineau put it, affected the artistic unity of her work.

Useful keywords for such a topic might be <Elizabeth Gaskell>, <North and South>, <Serialization>, and <Contemporary reception>. You may now enter one or more of these keywords as your search terms. Simply entering <Elizabeth Gaskell> will retrieve for you about 850 records from the database. You would rather narrow it down to <Elizabeth Gaskell - North and South>. This will give you about 50 records. But narrowing it down further to include all four of your keywords might give you zero results.

Instead, browse all the searched records and select those you consider most essential. You should, however, bear in mind at this stage that to produce a good essay, you have to try to be exhaustive. For this particular topic, you have to consider Gaskell in the context of some broader aspects of the Victorian period, such as industrialism, workers, education, class struggle, the condition of England question, political economy, etc. Searching each of these keywords separately may be the best solution, but that might be time-consuming. Instead, try to find out whether searching the recommended essential listings provided by the database itself might be of help. Enter <Elizabeth Gaskell - North and South / List (don't forget the spaces before and after / )>. The search results might include some entries on serialization and reception. If not, try separate searches using the keywords <Elizabeth Gaskell - Serialization> and <North and South - Contemporary reception>.

Now you are ready to compile a bibliography of your own. You may choose the one provided by the database, or, depending on your level of study, narrow it down a little to serve your purpose. Or you may prepare one yourself on the basis of your search results on <Elizabeth Gaskell - North and South>, <Elizabeth Gaskell - North and South / List>, <Elizabeth Gaskell - Serialization> and <Elizabeth Gaskell - Contemporary Reception>. If you are in a first-year program, about 10 entries should do. A graduate student might want to have a list of 60 or more. Whether it's 10 or 60, make sure that your list includes at least one entry on the Victorian period, one on contemporary reception, one on serialization, and a few on North and South, and that you have a mix of books and articles. At least some of these entries should be recent publications, preferably from within the past five years. A graduate student would do well to include entries on Gaskell's biographies, letters, manuscripts and contemporary reception.**

Your reading list may be the same as your bibliography, or you may narrow it down to a selected few, keeping in mind that some professors expect their students to read every book and article listed in the bibliography. Your library may have all the books listed in your bibliography; you may find the articles in the full-text online journals subscribed to by your library. The ones that you don't find in your library may be requested through interlibrary loan.

Browsing on reviews of books in refereed journals might be helpful, but do not rely on just one review. Read at least three to form your own view of a work. Articles in refereed journals should be your first preference. However, society journals and newsletters, though not peer-reviewed, might be of exceptional value on biographical and topographical aspects of your subject. What you may find in Dickensian or Gaskell Society Journal, you may not find anywhere else. Checking the cumulative indexes of these journals may be helpful.

A careful reading might lead to more useful material on your topic. Add them to your bibliography. Try to figure out the oft-quoted authorities on the subject and make sure that you have included their views in your discussion. Searching in Google or Wikipedia might be rewarding at times, but never quote from either of them.

Next, you have to choose one of several editions of North and South. You may choose the one prescribed by your course instructor, or you might select one from those recommended on the page on Primary Authors in the database. Also watch for oft-repeated editions in critical material you are studying.

What's Refereed? [Click to find out]

** Note: You may find hundreds of entries on some major authors like Dickens and Conrad even on selective ( / List) searches. Consider narrowing down by searching individual novels or using specific subject keywords.

© 2008. Updated: May 2008
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Editor: Brahma Chaudhuri